
The Effect of Alcoholic Drinks 
on the Human Mind and Body 

WHAT ATHLETICS HAVE .TAUGHT. 

T HE most popular sport in America is baseball. Many of the 
large cities have one or two professional teams composed of 
men picked from all over the country. Thousands of dollars 
are paid every year to see the games, and the teams for the most part 
are so evenly matched that only a slight superiority on either side de¬ 
cides the victory. Managers are constantly on the outlook not only for 
the best players with keen minds and active muscles, but they try by 
training to keep them in condition for the finest work. 

“The entrance requirements to the Athletics’ School of Applied 
Baseball are not many,” said Connie Mack, 1 manager of the Philadel¬ 
phia Athletics which for two years in succession won the championship 
series, “but each candidate must meet every requirement. He must 
have speed (except in the case of pitchers), brains and ambition. . . ., 
A major leaguer with a career on the diamond before him must cut out 
all bad habits.” Of the twenty-five players on the “Athletics’ ” team 


Photo by Boston Post. 

Fig. 1 . “Baseball men are not now of the drinking class. The fact is 
that a big-league player has to be in trim day in and day out or he is 
sent to the minors. It’s the survival of the fittest.”—Connie Mack, Manager 
Philadelphia “Athletics” Baseball Team. 

that won the world championship in 1910, “fifteen,” said Mr. Mack, 2 
“don’t know the taste of liquors,” and at the request of the manager 
the entire team went through the championship games in both i9io*and 
1911 without drinking even a single glass of beer. 

5 




While many factors are necessary to make a winning team so that 
the same one may not win year after year, baseball managers recognize 
that if their men are free from drink they stand a better chance of doing 
the best work. The manager of the Pittsburgh team forbade the use 
of alcoholic beverages by his men throughout the playing season of 
1912, and the manager of the Chicago “Cubs” announced that his men 
would have to agree to entire abstinence during the season of 1913. 

Football .—Not only in baseball, but in other sports, young men are 
finding the use of alcoholic drinks a handicap. 

“No one can honestly say that alcohol is of value to athletes,” said 
Ted Coy, captain of the Yale football team in 1909-10. “There are 
not even two sides to the question. Pve seen several good athletes 
spoiled by drink as far as athletics are concerned.” 3 

Running and Walking .—Marathon races have shown that alcohol 
not only impairs one’s chances of winning, but that it adds seriously to 


A 62-Mile Walking Match 

Comparison of Abstainers and Non-Abstainers 

Match held at Kiel, Germany, 1908 

Abstainers. ■B9BB Non-Abstainers. 


29% 

Percentage of Each Class Entered 

71% 

60% 

Percentage of th.e 10 Prizes Won 

40% 

60% 

First 25 to Reach Goal 

40% 

27% 

Last 26 to Reach Goal 

73% 

6% 

Failed to Reach Goad 

S4% 


T*o <rf hid fend iUmI (or oooti. tk. rooted 


CopjngtM IV10. b, Temperance Federircn. iou 

Fig. 2. See page 6. 

the dangers of a long strain. The managers of the Boston annual Mara¬ 
thon run positively forbid 4 alcoholic drinks before or during the race, 
because their experience has shown that the runners who use them be¬ 
come exhausted earlier than without it. 

Striking comparative tests of physical strength and endurance also 
show on a large scale the advantage of abstinence over even the mod¬ 
erate use of alcohol. 

An Actual Test .—Such a test was the long-distance match held in 
Germany a few years ago (Fig. 2). The course was sixty-two miles. 5 
Prizes were to be given to the first ten men covering the distance. 
Eighty-one men entered the match, of whom only twenty-four (29 per 
cent) were abstainers. The first four men who crossed the line before 

6 





















the cheering crowd of 20,000 people were abstainers. Of the ten prize 
winners, six were habitual abstainers, and two of the other four win¬ 
ners had been abstaining for some time while in training for the match. 

Still more important than the winning was the better endurance of 
the abstainers in this contest. More than half of the non-abstainers fell 
out by the way, but only two of the twenty-four abstainers. Endurance 
is an essential in work requiring a long strain. 

Speed, agility, quick-wittedness, strength, endurance, all these are 
needed by the successful athlete, and experience shows that alcohol may 


1 

1 

1 

Alcohol and Muscle Work 

Mountain - Climbing 

t*~ ' I Abstinent Dtyi. iSNUI Aloobol 0«T<- 

Expenditure of Energy was 15% Greater on Alcohol Days. 

ffcr-r-T-7- ■ -:.-.-■ -:-—-=■■■■"■■ '-1 

"Work Done (foot-pounds per second) Averaged 16.4% less on AIcohoIDays. 

rt---1 

fl -—-—-1 

Time Required to Climb the Mountain 21.7% Longer on Alcohol Days. 

[E —. ' 1 ' ---- 

--^_ .*- r .i,i. ,n --^nn 

Fig. 3. For explanation see page 8. 


impair any one or all of these qualities, so that, in the words of the 
Australian swimmer, Beaurepaire, “Alcohol is disastrous to ath¬ 
letes/' 

THE RELATION OF ALCOHOL TO WORK. 

Many whose muscle is their capital have believed that their daily 
drink gives them strength and enables them to hold out through a long 
day's work. When careful tests are made, it is found that quite the 
opposite is true. 

Effect on Endurance. — During one of his campaigns with the 
British army, General Wolseley tried out the effect of alcoholic drinks 
on endurance. To some of his troops he gave alcohol, to others none, 
and watched the results. The test showed conclusively that the water 
drinkers were fresher, livelier and marched better than those that had 
alcohol. The difference was so marked that General Kitchener later, 
in a campaign calling for special exertion, gave strict orders that no 
alcoholic drinks of any kind should be taken with the army. 

Efficiency —Experiments have been made by individuals to test the 
working power and endurance with and without alcohol. A few years 
ago, Professor Durig, 6 an expert mountain climber, carried out a series 

7 
















of experiments, climbing in each case to the summit, 8,000 feet high, of 
Mt. Bilkencrat, in the Alps. He took acount of the height to which he 
climbed, the weight of his body and his pack, and he carried instruments 
by which he was able to measure exactly how much bodily energy he 
put forth, the amount of muscle work he did, and the length of time it 
took to do it. Before beginning the climb, on certain days he took alco¬ 
holic drink equivalent to 2 or 2 1-3 glasses of beer, and found, to his 
surprise, that although the instruments indicated (Fig. 3) that he had 
expended 15 per cent more energy than on the abstinent days, his watch 
showed that it took 21.7 per cent longer to reach the top of the moun¬ 
tain than on the days when he took no alcohol. 

Other tests have been made of the effects of alcohol on muscle 
work showing that from 8 to io-per cent less work was done on the 
days when the worker drank one-half pint of wine, the alcohol in which 
would be equivalent to that in a pint or pint and one-half of beer. 7 

Taking Off the Brakes .—But the worker usually has the idea that 
he is doing more and better work when using alcohol, and out of this 
has grown the erroneous idea that drink helps one do hard work. 

This idea is due to the drug effects of alcohol on the brain. Care¬ 
ful tests have shown that alcohol is not a stimulant to the brain and 
nervous system, as was long supposed, but instead, depresses them. It 
is a drug belonging to the same group of drugs as ether and chloroform, 
and like these other narcotics, has a paralyzing effect on the nervous 
centers of control. 

But even smaller quantities, a glass or two of wine or beer, slightly 
impair the power of self-control and self-restraint, giving one the de¬ 
lusive feeling that he is acting more easily and effectively. This greater 
activity which may appear for a short time after a dose of alcohol is 
taken is a stage of excitement similar to that often shown by a patient 
when going under ether or chloroform. The increased action of the 
muscles is not due to increased strength, but to lessened control of them. 
It is somewhat like the action of an automobile which shows more speed 
when the brakes fail to work properly, simply because it is not under 
full control. 

Self-Judgment Impaired .—Alcohol also impairs the power of self¬ 
judgment, leading one to suppose that .he is doing more or better work 
than he actually is doing; or, acting as a narcotic, the alcohol may 
deaden for a time the feeling of weariness without really removing the 
cause, so that the person believes that the use of alcohol rests him, when 
it is simply adding t q his fatigue. Often when its influence passes off 
he feels depressed again and thinks he must take another drink to 
overcome the depression. 


8 


i 

Setf-Control Weakened .—“Why doesn’t he control himself?” is 
sometimes asked when a person has become intoxicated. Because he 
has used a substance that has power to rob one of that very self-control 
which should say to the user, “Stop.”. Some people are more quickly 
affected by alcohol than others. The same person may be more easily 
affected at one time than at another. But no one can be sure that he 
can “control himself” in the use of a substance like alcohol, one of whose 
first effects is to impair self-control. ' It belongs to the class of habit¬ 
forming drugs like opium and morphine, which, as everyone knows, 
tend to create a craving for increasing amounts. No one can tell in 
advance whether alcohol will so affect him, and when he finds out, it is 
often too late. The safest brain is an undrugged brain. 


EFFECT OF ALCOHOL ON SKILL. 

Alcohol lessens skill and precision in fine work where head, hand, 
eye, muscles and nerves qiust work together for deftness and accuracy. 


Alcohol and Precision as Shown by Marksmanship 

1st Tests. No Alcohol—Average No. of Hits 23 

HHHHH 2nd Tests. Alcohol Taken—Average No. of Hits 3 
3rd Tests. No Alcohol—Average No. Hits 26 


Sy In* Bu f t Bay, tSw. d —. >904.) Copyright IV10, bjr SaenuJc Temperance Federation t 

Fig. 4. For explanation see page 9. 

Fewer hits were made on the alcohol days, but the soldiers thought 
they were shooting better. 


Marksmanship. — A series of target-shooting trials in Sweden 
showed clearly the advantage of abstinence when skill is required. A 
group of soldiers 8 —three corporals and three privates—took part in 
three series of tests, each lasting several days. 

During the first and third series the men were entirely abstinent; for 
the second series—the alcohol days—they took about two-thirds of a 
wineglass of brandy (34-44 grams of alcohol) from 20 to 30 minutes 
before the firing, and an equal amount of ‘alcohol in punch on the 
evening before. 

In tests for precision, it was found that on the alcohol days the men 
made fewer points than when they had no alcohol. In the quick-firing 
tests (Fig. 4), on the alcohol days they hit the :arget on the average 
only 3 times out of 30 shots fired in quick succession, but on the two 
series of abstinent days the average was 23 and 26 hits. 

9 







Typesetting and Typewriting .—Four typesetters in a printing office 
in Heidelberg, Germany, were tested in their work to find out if alcohol 
helped or hindered them. 9 The trials were carried on for an hour a 
day for four successive days. The first and third days no alcohol was 
taken; on the second and fourth days the work was done after drinking 
about three-quarters of a tumbler of Greek wine (18 per cent alcohol). 

Alcohol used in these amounts to which the men were accustomed 
decreased the amount of work done about 9 per cent on the average. 



Copyright, 1913, by Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston. 


Fig. 5. Each column represents the amount of typewriting done in a 
given time. On days when no alcohol was taken (first two columns), in the 
first test sixteen errors were made in every 100 characters written; in the 
second test there were on the average eighteen errors in each 100 characters 
written, an increase due to fatigue of 12 1-2 per cent. 

In the second series of days in tests made without alcohol (column three) 
the average number of errors was fourteen per hundred characters written, 
showing that better work was being done than on the other days. But after 
taking 1 ; 3 oz. alcohol (equivalent to that in about three glasses of beer) there 
were thirty-one errors in every 100 characters an increase of 121 per cent. 

Even allowing for the effects of fatigue, alcohol greatly increased the errors, 
thus impairing efficiency. (Experiments by Kraepelin.) 

This meant that if the same loss held for a whole day’s work, if a man 
were capable of earning $15.00 a week when not drinking, he would 
earn only $13.65 if he drank as much alcohol daily as would be con¬ 
tained in a quart of beer. 

This typesetting test showed that the amount of skilled work done 
was diminished by alcohol. In a test by typewriting it was found that 
alcohol increased the number of errors (Fig. 5). 

BRAIN WORK IMPAIRED BY ALCOHOL. 

Many experiments have been made in studying the effects of alco¬ 
hol on special kinds of brain work, a large number of them by Professor 
Kraepelin, now of the University of Munich, with the help of medical 
students in his department, Professor A. Smith and others. 

Memory .—Even a child early learns that there are many things he 
has to remember or to commit to memory. Spelling lessons, the multi¬ 
plication table, facts in geography, history, science, are learned only as 

10 



















memory enables him to retain them. But in many finer and more deli¬ 
cate ways memory is an important part of mental life. 

To test the effects of daily doses of alcohol on the ability to memor¬ 
ize, rows of figures were learned on days when no alcohol was taken 
(Fig. 6), and other rows on days when the student used as much alcohol 
as would be contained in from two to four glasses of beer. 

The result showed 10 that on the average fewer numbers were 
learned on the alcohol days. 



Fig. 6. Height of columns represents the number of figures learned each 
day. Increase from day to day on abstinent days shows the gains made by 
practice. Decrease of fifth and sixth days due to temporary illness, and on 
the sixth day one dose of alcohol was taken. Dotted line from fourth to 
twenty-fifth days shows the normal rate of increase. Alcohol in amount equal 
to that in from two to four glasses of beer (40-80 grms.) taken on the alcohol 
days. Memorizing done eight or ten hours after taking the alcohol. Amount 
of work done on the twelfth alcohol day about 70 per cent less than it should 
have been, and was less even than was done on Day one. 


Work similar to that done by every school pupil was tried by Pro¬ 
fessor Vogt, of the University of Christiania, who committed to 
memory daily 25 lines of Greek poetry, 11 and recorded the number of 
minutes required to learn them. On the days when he took as much alco¬ 
hol as one would get in from one and one-half to three glasses of beer, 
it took him on the average 18 per cent longer to learn the lines than 
when no alcohol was taken. Six months later, when he reviewed and 
relearned the same lines, he found that the lines learned on the alcohol 
days required more time for relearning. Matter learned when the brain 
is affected by alcohol does not make so sharp and clear an impression, 
and therefore is not so easily recalled. 

A MAN MAY HARM HIMSELF BY DRINK WITHOUT EVER GETTING 


DRUNK. 

Scholarship .—Even school boys and girls have been studied in the 
effort to learn the facts about alcohol and mental work. 

A school director in Vienna, E. Bayer, 12 noticed that some of the 


11 


































































school children were unusually disorderly in school and backward in 
their studies. After studying about 1,000 for several years, he found 
that these children, as a rule, were given wine or beer or rum, in tea. 

Scholarship of Abstaining and Drinking Children 

Investigation concerned 588 pupils in 14 classes. 

Drinks used included wine, beer and rum in tea. 

I : -4 Highest Marks Fair Marks WSMBt Poorest Marks 

134 Abstaining Children 

42 % 49% 9% 

164 Who Drank Occasionally 

lL_- - • I "I —■ 

219 Who Drank Once a Day 


29% 

58% 

14% 

25% 

71 Who Drank Twice a Day 

58% 

18% 


Highest Scholarship Decreased]^ Ae use of A]M ^ IncreaseA 

Poorest Scholarship Increased J 



lnv«*tif.bo« \j E. B»yr, School Dinctor, Viwaa, 1699.Copyright I9IB. by Scientifir 

Fig. 7. See page 12. 


Through the teachers, he learned the habits of 591 children as regards 
the use of alcohol, and obtained their reports on scholarship, which was 
ranked as “good,” “fair” and “poor.” (Fig. 7.) 

Almost half of the 134 abstaining children had “good” marks. Only 
12 of them had poor marks. With the drinking children, the more fre¬ 
quently they used wine or beer, the more the good marks fell off and 
the poor marks increased. 

Four thousand Italian children 13 in Brescia, Italy, were studied as 
to their use of alcohol. The following facts were discovered about their 


scholarship: 4 fi 2 , s , 6 2 , 02I 

Abstainers Drink Wine Drink Wine 

Occasionally Daily 

Per cent Per cent Per cent 

Good marks . 42.66 30.5 29.8 

Fair . 53.49 41.8 39.7 

Poor . 3.85 27. 30.3 


Alcohol is a handicap to scholarship. 

Brain Alertness .—Alcohol impairs perception. Young people some¬ 
times try in sport to recognize as many objects as they can in a given 
time in passing a window, etc. To see and to recognize quickly re¬ 
quires keen activity of the brain. Alcohol has been found to impair 
this activity. In the tests made by Professor Krapelin, letters, syllables 
and figures were made to pass quickly before the eyes of a person, who 
was asked to tell what he saw. When alcohol had been taken, he failed 
more often to perceive all the characters that shot by, and he made more 
mistakes in naming them. 


12 




















In reading aloud, after alcohol was taken, the reading was done 
more quickly but less correctly. 

Mistakes in Answering Signals. —Alcohol was found, too, to impair 
ability to answer a signal correctly. The football team carries on its 
game by a series of signals which the quarterback gives. Every man on 
the team must know them and act in obedience the instant he hears them. 
In baseball, every motion of the ball is a signal to some player to act 
very quickly. 

The effect of alcohol on the mental quickness in answering a signal 
has been studied with the help of delicate instruments. These can 
measure the time which it takes for the mind to receive and answer a 
signal down to the thousandth part of a second. 

Many persons were tested many times. On some days they took 
alcohol, on others none, and the results were compared. 

When, for example, a small flag was shown one of the persons 
tested, the instant he saw it he had to press an electric button. The time 
that passed after the signal was given until he pressed the button showed 
how quickly his mind was working. 

When this was all that a man had to do, it was found that for a 
few minutes after taking as much alcohol as would be contained in one- 
third to one bottle of wine (claret, io per cent alcohol), he answered 
the signal more quickly than when no alcohol had been taken, but very 
soon in most cases he began to answer the signals more slowly, and this 
slower response lasted several hours. 14 

Sometimes, however, tests were made in which he had to decide 
which of two motions to make when he saw the signal, as an engineer, 
when a red light flashes out before him on the track ahead, must often 
decide in the fraction of a second what he will do to guide his train and 
passengers to safety. The tests were made in this way: If a green 
flag appeared before the man, he had to press an electric button at the 
right; if he saw a red flag, he must press a button at the left. For a 
short time after taking no more alcohol than that in a bottle of claret, he 
pressed the button more quickly, but he was more likely to press the 
wrong one— he made more mistakes. 

With larger quantities of alcohol the mind always responded to the 
signal more slowly than without it. 

These and other experiments showed how dangerous a drinking 
man may be in any business requiring the quick giving, receiving and 
answering of signals. Alcohol slows the correct reading of signals 

AND INCREASES LIABILITY TO MAKE MISTAKES. • 

Railroad Requirements. —It is partly for this reason that so many 
of the railroads in the United States require abstinence from all alco- 

13 


holic drinks on the part of the men who operate their trains. An en¬ 
gineer on the Lackawanna Road in 1912 who had been drinking the 
night before ran his train past three signals warning him to stop (Fig 8 ). 



Fig. 8. Railroad accident. Corning, N. Y. July 4, 1912. The engineer 
had been drinking. 

“There is only one absolutely safe course to be followed by these 
classes of men (trainmen) and that is to abstain altogether from the use of 
liquor. That will be the rule of the Lackawanna hereafter.”—Geo. A. Cullen, 
Passenger Traffic Manager. 

He proved again by an unnecessary and tragic experiment that alcohol 
is liable to render one less able to perceive and act correctly upon signals, 
but his experiment cost 40 lives outright, and 75 more were injured. 

After the accident on the Lackawanna Road, the managers issued 
the following rule: “Trainmen must not drink or enter saloons even 
when off duty.” 

DRINK AND ACCIDENTS. 

The liability to accidents from the use of alcohol is by no means 
confined to railroads. Crowded streets, the use of swift machinery, 
powerful electrical currents multiply the demands for alert senses, clear 
and accurately working brains. 

WANTED—A FIRST CLASS CHAUFFEUR. 

One who has had large experience, never touches intoxicating liquors 
and can give very highest recommendations as to ability and character. A 
good opportunity for the right kind of man. 

So ran a recent newspaper advertisement, signed by a member of 
one of the largest mercantile firms of New England. 

Endangers Sober Workmen .—A tippling chauffeur endangers the 
life of everyone on his route. A factory hand, careless or inefficient 
through drink, may cause an explosion or other accident that destroys 
scores of his fellow-workmen. 

14 






“No man under the influence of alcohol even slightly should be per • 
mitted to remain in the works, much less to work,” says a pamphlet 
issued by the Fidelity and Casualty Company. 15 “Nor should a man 
whose nerves have been rendered unsteady by the habitual use of alco¬ 
hol or by a recent debauch be permitted to operate dangerous machinery 
or to carry on dangrous zvork. He endangers not only his own life but 
the lives of others” 

The Aetna Life Insurance Company said in a pamphlet in 1911: 16 
“It is advisable not to employ, or to continue in employment, men who 
are known to be steady and hard drinkers. The regular use of intoxi¬ 
cants in any considerable quantity is bound in time to make a workman 
undesirable as regards both his liability to cause accident and his 
efficiency” 

The Habitual Drinker and Accidents. —The man who appears at a 
factory intoxicated is likely to be promptly sent home as unfit to work. 
But the man who is suffering from the effects of heavy drinking of the 
day before may show no signs of it and yet not be in complete control 
of himself. 

The habitual drinker presents, perhaps, the greatest danger. The 
quantities of alcohol he takes each day are not enough to cause drunk¬ 
enness, but they may, nevertheless, considerably reduce his alertness. 
Drinkers of both classes are liable to have less acute hearing and sight; 
the work of the mind is likely to be slowed. As a result, they may be less 
careful and accurate and slower to recognize danger. They are more 
liable by false or unsteady motion or inaccurate judgment to cause a 
serious accident to themselves and their fellow-workmen. 

German accident insurance companies have shown that the hard 
drinker is injured more frequently than the average, recovers from in¬ 
jury more slowly, and therefore loses more time from work on this 
account, and that the death-rate from accidents is higher among heavy 
drinkers than the average accident death-rate. 

WHERE BUSINESS TAKES A HAND. 

Thus the drinker tends to become an unprofitable workman to his 
employer. His habit tends to lessen his endurance, to impair his skill, 
and to cause more accidents and sickness. The drinker who loses time 
because of his drink brings loss upon the employer not only for his own 
time but for that of other workmen. In a well-managed factory, each 
room is supposed to turn out daily a certain number of parts for the 
next room to finish. If two or three men are absent from a room, valu¬ 
able machinery stands idle, the work expected is not finished for the 
next room, and so the routine of the whole factory may be more or less 
disorganized. 


15 


The young man entering business and industry today has to face 
the fact, therefore, that an increasing number of employers do not want 
him if he drinks a substance like alcohol that impairs memory, alertness, 
quickness, precision, judgment or self-control on the mental side, re¬ 
duces strength and endurance on the physical side, and in general in¬ 
creases accidents and sickness and lost time. 


Employers Who Prefer Non-Alcoholized Workmen 

From 111. Report by the U. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR of eo m.ertigetioo eothoriied hr Congre.*, 1*97. 

—) Represents employers who Jo consider an applicant's drinking habits. 

IBI Represents employers who do not consider an applicant^ drinking habits. 

77% of All Establishments Reporting 


56.5 % of Mines and Quarrymen 

72% of Agriculturists 


79% of Manufacturers 


88% of Trades 



98% of Transportation 


Copyright nil, by Soentihc Tempersnce Federation 


Fig. 9. See page 16. 


Even fifteen years ago, employers were beginning to prefer the 
wholly sober man, as was shown by an inquiry by the United States 
Bureau of Labor. Of over 7,000 employers of labor, 77 per cent stated 
(Fig. 9) that in hiring men they wanted to know what were their habits 
as regards drink. Many refused to hire any but abstainers. Since that 
time, the perfection of swifter, more complex machinery has put the 
drinking man at a still greater disadvantage. 

‘Til tell you what you ought to do,” said the doctor to his employer 
friend. “You would find it a great saving in efficiency and accidents 
not to employ drinking men.” 

“I know it,” answered the manufacturer, “but some of my older 
men are drinkers, and it wouldn’t be fair to turn them off now at their 
age. It would be too hard for them to find another job.” 

“Probably you’re right,” agreed the doctor. “But I’ll tell you what 
you can do. You can refuse to take on any new men, and especially 
young men, who are drinkers.” The doors of opportunity are clos¬ 
ing TO THE DRINKER. 


THE MEANING OF DISORDERED BRAIN CELLS IN CRIME. 

Brain cells disordered by alcohol often lead to crime, although not 
all persons are affected alike or to the same extent, so that not every¬ 
one who drinks commits crime. Yet there is enough chargeable to 

16 




















alcohol to make it a very serious matter to society. In the signal tests 
after the use of alcohol, the muscles moved more quickly, but the man 
made more mistakes, that is, he failed to consider properly what he was 
to do. The sober man thinks first and then acts; the man under the 
influence of alcohol often acts first and thinks afterwards. The “signal” 
to him may be a gesture; his “response,” a blow with the fist or a knife, 
a cut, a stab, or a shot, and he is arrested for assault, or even, perhaps, 
some more serious offense, due to the fact that his brain cells were not 
working properly because of the alcohol. The man who is “dead drunk” 
is too stupid to do the same amount of damage. Thus it is found that 
the kinds of crimes most frequently traceable to drink are blows, wounds, 
assaults, those that result from irritability such as is promoted by com¬ 
paratively slight intoxication. It tends to turn a man who ordinarily 
restrains himself into the “hair-trigger type” of man. (Abel.) 14 

Judge Ivory C. Kimball, of Washington, D. C., testified at a Senate 
Committee hearing in 1912 that in 19 years’ service as a police court 
judge he had tried about 150,000 cases, and not less than 75 per cent, in 
his judgment, were due directly or indirectly to drink. 17 

The Committee of Fifty, studying 13,402 convicts in twelve states, 18 
reached the conclusion that drink contributed to 49 per cent of the crimes 
against property; to 51 per cent of the crimes against the person (blows, 
wounds, etc.), and to 47 per cent of all other crimes. 

The Emperor of Germany says : 19 “In my reign of 22 years, of the 
great number of crimes which have been appealed to me for decision, 
nine-tenths were due to alcohol.” 

Besides the crime due to drink, the brain and nerves disordered by 
alcohol in drunkenness cause arrests and convictions for drunkenness. 
Sixty-three per cent of all arrests in Massachusetts in 1911 were for 
drunkenness alone. 20 When to this is added the crime already described 
as caused by alcohol-disordered brains, it is evident that drink is re¬ 
sponsible for a very large part of the work of the police, the courts, the 
jails and the prisons. 

INSANITY. 

An army of more than 30,000 insane persons in the United States 
whose insanity is due wholly or partly to alcohol—so runs the estimate. 21 
This means that at least one case of every five of insanity is chargeable 
directly or indirectly to drink. Official statistics from six Massachu¬ 
setts insane hospitals in 1906 attribute 20 per cent of the admissions to 
this influence of alcohol. It was held responsible for over 28 per cent 
of the patients in New York State Insane Hospitals in 1910. “One 
insane person costs a loss to the state of nearly $400 a year. The total 
loss in money to the state of New York by alcoholic insanity must, 

17 


therefore, be $2,400,000, and to the United States $12,000,000 every 
year.” 21 

The children of alcohol users sometimes show nervous weakness 
which eventually develops into insanity, or if there is mental instability 



Fig. 10. Actual changes in brain and nerve cells are sometimes pro¬ 
duced by continued heavy drinking. At the left is a normal nerve cell. The 
“branches” and “twigs” are the paths by which brain messages go from cell 
to cell. 

At the right is a cell that has been damaged by the continued heavy use of 
alcohol. The center is irregular, the “branches” and “twigs” are breaking 
down. Sometimes even the central portion of the cell may be destroyed. 

Such changes may not take place in every drinker or to the same extent in 
all cells, but a perfectly working brain is impossible with damaged cells. 

“Long before the cells show change in form, they may show change in action.” 

for any reason, the use of alcohol may bring on insanity which other¬ 
wise would not have appeared. 

ALCOHOL AND HEALTH. 

Tohold a secure place in the working world a man must be dependable, 
regularly in his place, and in fit condition to work. Frequent absences 
on account of sickness detract from his value in any situation, besides 
reducing his own income. Alcohol increases liability to sickness. 

Drinkers Lose More Time by Sickness .—In England and Australia 
there are large sick benefit societies, the members of which are abstainers. 
When the records of these societies were compared with the sickness of 
benefit societies which do not require abstinence (Fig. ii), the members 
in the abstaining societies were found 22 to have only about half as much 
sickness as those in the non-abstaining societies. The duration of sick¬ 
ness was important also, for the abstainers were away from work on 
the average 6.4 weeks, but members in the societies not requiring absti¬ 
nence, 10.9 weeks. If the members earned when well an average of 
$12 a week, this would mean a wage loss during sickness of $76.80 for an 
abstainer, but a loss of $130.80 for a non-abstainer. 

18 



Certain German sick benefit societies 23 have placed the hard drinkers 
in a group by themselves for study, and found that they had many more 
sick days than the average, and therefore cost the societies more in 
benefits. Because of this, all insured persons had to pay a higher rate 
for their sickness insurance than would have been necessary if there 
had not been this class of heavy drinkers who had extra days of sick¬ 
ness. The sober men had to pay the difference. 



Comparative Sickness Abstaining and General Benefit Societies 

E?53 Abstaining Societies m Genera] Societies 


Percentage of Death, 
in Whole Society 




..ctrirwht 


Fig. 11. The abstaining societies had abstaining members only. The 
general societies did not require abstinence. The abstainers averaged only 
about one-half as much sickness as members in general societies; when sick 
they recovered sooner, and only about half as many died. The death-rate 
in abstainers’ societies was less than half the death-rate in the general 
societies. See page 18. 


Reduces Resistance to Disease .—Alcohol also makes one more 
susceptible especially to infectious diseases. In the world around us are 
bodily enemies, disease germs, ever gaining entrance to the body through 
water, milk, ice, food, dust and air. Within the body are defenses, the 
white blood corpuscles and others, intended to destroy the disease germs 
if they gain lodgment, or the poisons which they generate. When the 
body is weakened by cold or over-work or lack of food,, these bodily 
defenses are impaired and do not fully protect against disease. Alcohol 
also has been proven to impair the resistance of these bodily defenses, 24 
and even to paralyze, as it were, the activity of the white blood cor¬ 
puscles, so that at the very time they are most needed they fail in the 
drinker to give him full protection. At the same time the invading dis¬ 
ease germs seem to be less affected by the alcohol than the white cor¬ 
puscles. In great epidemics of cholera and yellow fever it was long ago 
noticed that the drinkers were apt to succumb early, although the reasons 
were not then understood as now. In diseases like erysipelas and pneu¬ 
monia, the course of the disease in the habitual user of alcohol is liable 
to be much more serious than in non-drinkers. 

19 

























TWIN ENEMIES—ALCOHOL AND TUBERCULOSIS. 

War to the finish has been declared on the tuberculosis germ. Since 
it was discovered, doctors and boards of health, schools and tubercu¬ 
losis societies have been warring against it trying to destroy it and keep 
it from multiplying. 

That, however, is not all of the battle. A very important part is 
so to strengthen the body that the disease germs which are all about us 
can get no chance to develop within it. A healthy skin on the outside 
of the body, healthy membranes lining the cavities, good food, fresh 
air, sunlight, exercise -all these are needed to enable one to resist the 
onslaught of the invisible germ. 

Drink Prepares the Soil for Tuberculosis. — Among unhealthful 
habits which make ore more liable to tuberculosis is the alcoholic habit. 
It tends to set up ir flammed conditions-of the air passages, or often 
leads to carelessness about taking colds which make the lining mem¬ 
brane of the air passages still more unhealthy, and thus give the germs 
of the disease a better chance to develop. It may interfere with the 
proper nourishment of the body, and so make it less resistant to the 
disease. “Alcohol/"' said a French physician, “prepares the soil for 
tuberculosis.” There are indirect routes also by which the alcohol habit 
permits tuberculosis to get established. When money is spent for drink 
it often means that there is less to spend for good food, a healthful 
home or adequate clothing, and the lack of these conditions for good 
health makes it easier to contract the disease. 


Tuberculosis Patients and Alcohol 

Investigations at Phipps Institute, Philadelphia 

Alcoholic patients whom alcohol had obviously harmed. 

Patients who were abstainers or light drinkers. 


29.5% 


Improved 


Died 


Unimproved 


121 . 8 % 


9.9% 


49.2% 


48.5% 


40.7% 


Copyright 1913, by Scicmif- T - 


Fig. 12. ‘From the facts before us, alcohol is exceedingly dangerous to 
the tuberculous. The only safe rule is to abstain from it altogether.”—Report 
Phipps Institute, 1908. 


Tuberculosis Treatment Handicapped by Alcoholic Habits. _The 

Phipps Institute in Philadelphia recorded for several years the habit of 

20 



















each patient and of his parents in regard to the use of alcohol and the 
progress of the cases. The abstainers were not grouped by themselves, 
so the Institute records give no opportunity of comparing them with 
non-abstainers. But when the alcoholic patients, those who had used 
enough alcohol to do themselves obvious physical harm, were compared 
with the group of lighter drinkers and abstainers, it was found (Fig. 12) 
that the alcoholic tuberculous patients showed a smaller percentage of 
cases in which there was an improvement; a larger percentage of them 
died or were unimproved. 

The International Tuberculosis^Congress in 1905 declared that, “In 
view of the close connection between alcoholism and tuberculosis, this 
Congress strongly emphasizes the importance of combining the fight 
against tuberculosis with the struggle against alcoholism.” 

DANGEROUS OCCUPATIONS MADE MORE DANGEROUS ' 

BY DRINK. 

In certain kinds of work alcohol is especially liable to' disable the 
worker through sickness because it intensifies the danger involved in 
the work itself. 

Lead-Poisoning .—Those who work with lead, painters and paint- 
makers, etc., are far more liable to lead-poisoning if drinkers than if 
abstainers. 25 The natural resistance of the body is taxed in trying to 
overcome the effects caused by the lead. When the injury caused by 
alcohol is added, the forces of resistance are overcome more quickly 
than if onlv one enemy at a time has to be met. 

Exposure to Heat .—Men working in extreme heat are more liable 
to heat prostration, if drinkers, partly because alcohol deadens sensi-. 
bility and impairs judgment so that one is more apt to expose himself 
recklessly to heat, and partly because the effect of alcohol on the nervous 
system disorders the body’s natural mechanism for protection against 
heat. Army experiences in India, Africa and other hot climates have 
shown that the alcohol-users are much more susceptible to heat, and 
that men using no alcohol at all better endured severe experiences, com¬ 
ing through in excellent health and with but few cases of sunstroke. 

Drink and Cold Weather .—Teamsters and other men who have to 
work out of doors in cold weather often believe alcoholic drinks warm 
them. On the contrary, it really makes the body colder. They feel 
warmer for a short time because alcohol partly paralyzes the nerves 
controlling the blood vessels so that more warm blood flows through 
them close to the cold surface of the skin, but this blood returns to the 
interior of the body chilled, thus reducing the temperature of the body 
and making one more liable to take cold. Extra clothing, exercise and 
hot, non-alcoholic drinks, are the best aids to warmth in cold weather. 

21 


DRINK’S COST IN LIVES. 

One Death Every Eight Minutes Due to Drink .—All the world was 
shocked when the news came that the splendid steamship Titanic had 
carried down to death 1,662 persons (Fig. 13). Yet alcohol carries off 
1,662 adults every nine days all the year round in the United States, 
65,897 a year, according to the estimate of Edward Bunnell Phelps 26 
based on the estimates of medical directors of three of the large Ameri- 



Photo by Amer. Press Assn. 

Fig. 13. The Titanic carried down 1,662 persons. Alcohol is estimated 
to carry off 1,662 adults every nine days. Total for the year, 65,897 deaths 
wholly or partly due to drink. 

.can life insurance companies. This means one adult death every eight 
minutes due directly or indirectly to alcoholic drinks, one out of every 
7.5 adult male deaths. 27 

Drink’s Toll in Special Diseases .—It was estimated that io to 12 
per cent of the deaths from tuberculosis are due wholly or partly to 
drink; 22 per cent of the deaths from pneumonia, paralysis and apo¬ 
plexy; 30 per cent of the deaths from Bright’s disease; 16 per cent of 
the deaths from heart disease; 43 per cent of the deaths from heat 
prostration, and, of course, all the deaths from alcoholism. 

Typhoid and smallpox are dreaded diseases. In 8 years, 1900-1908, 
smallpox carried off 2,214 men 25-65 years of age in the registration 
area of the United States (Fig. 14). Typhoid carried off 22,211 men. 
But alcoholism, for which alcohol was wholly responsible—and the 75 
per cent of liver cirrhosis which may be charged to alcohol, carried off 
33> I 39 men ; 10,928 more than typhoid, and more than fifteen times as 
many as smallpox. And these, alcoholism and liver cirrhosis, are only 
two of the 106 diseases in which alcohol may be one cause of death. 

22 



Further, these statistics cover only about one-half of the United States. 28 

Abstainers' Better Chance of Long Life .—Life insurance statistics 
have shown convincingly the average longer life of the abstainer. „In 


COMPARATIVE MORTALITY from 
TYPHOID FEVER .SMALL-POX 

ALCOHOLISM ( u »?3B!? L as ) 



U. S. Registration Copyright 1913 by Scientific 

Area, 1900-1908 Temp. Federation, Boston. 

Fig. 14. Deaths represented as due to alcohol do not include the 
deaths in 104 other diseases which may be directly or indirectly due to drink. 

“Alcoholic indulgence stands almost, if not altogether in the front rank of 
the enemies to be combatted in the battle for health.”—Prof. Wm. T. Sedgwick. 


Moderate Drinking and the Death Rate 

-Facts from the Life Insurance Companies 

■■■■ octml dt.th. of MUtof DAmUn. IllfflillMH iMul dec tlx of Ak iMm. 



Copyright 1311, by Uctootlflo Temponmoo Feaemntm.BaMoo. 

Fig. IS. See page 24. 


some of the British life insurance companies, the abstainers’ records 
for many years have been kept separately, and they can be compared 
with the death-rates of the non-abstainers. The experience of the 

23 






















































United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution for 35 
years, 1866-1909, showed (Fig. 15) that for every 100 deaths expected, 
93 deaths actually occurred in the non-abstainers’ section, but in the 
abstainers’ section only 70 deaths occurred. They showed also that at 
30 years of age the average insured man may be expected to live 35 
years longer; but the average insured abstainer may expect to live 
38.8 years longer. 29 The death-rate of the non-abstainers is greater 
than that of the abstainers at almost every age of adult life and greatest 
between the ages of 35 and 40—the prime of life, when a man is most 

MORTALITY E>Y AGE 

OF 

DRINKERS compare? with GENERAL CLASS 

GENERAL GLASS • DRINKERS AT 

AT ALL AGE:S . *15-34 VR3 35-44 VR-S. H554- m 55-4HVR-S. C5-T4-YR-S. 


0190 



Copyright, 1913, by Scientific Temp. Federation, Botton. 


Fig. 16. The figure at the extreme left shows the average death-rate 
at each age period. For example,, at ages 35-44 years, for every 100 deaths 
per 1,000 insured men, there were 290 per 1,000 in the “drinkers”—Those who 
showed some effect of their use of alcohol. (Leipsig Sick Benefit Societies, 1910.) 

needed by his family and should be of the highest value to the com¬ 
munity. 

Alcohol-caused disease is preventable disease. 

Drinkers’ Death-Rate Far Higher by Age Periods .—Similar facts 
were shown by German insurance companies (Fig. 16) which compared 
the death-rate of the class of men called “drinkers” with the general 
death-rate. At each age the “drinkers” exceeded the average mortality, 
and in the prime of life, age period 35-44, their death-rate was nearly 
three times as great as the average. 23 

A WASTE OF CHILD LIFE. 

“Every ten seconds a baby dies,” is an estimate for the whole 
world. 30 In the United States alone, not far from 250,000 babies died 
in 1909, or one baby every two minutes. 

24 




















Mortality of Children of DRINKING Mothers. 


Children in Black Died Under Two Years—55 per cent 



Copyright, 1913 , by Scientific Temp. Federation, Boston. 

Fig. 17. See page 26. 


Mortality of Children of SOBER Mothers. 

Children in Black Died Under Two Years—23 Per Cent 



. •• "-V- 








LL, < > 




m Copyright, 1913, The Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston. 

t. V 1 ** , sobe , r ^hers were .relatives of the drinking mothers 
(Fig. 17) and had sober husbands. 


% 


25 









This enormous loss of child life is due to many causes. Among 
them is the use of alcohol by the parents who did not know or realize 
the possible results to their little children, as it is only within a few 
years that the effects of drink have been so carefully studied. 

Dr. Sullivan 31 found that 120 drinking mothers of 600 children 
lost more than half of them before the children were two years of age 
(55.8 per cent). (Fig. 17.) When he compared 21 drinking mothers 
with 28 mothers who were their relatives but were sober and had sober 
husbands, he found that the sober women (Fig. 18) lost less than a 
quarter of their children (23 per cent). 

Dr. Laitinen, in Finland, made inquiries about the deaths of chil¬ 
dren in 3,611 families which had had 17,394 children. 34 Where the 
parents were abstainers only 13 per cent of their children had died. 
The parents who were “moderate” drinkers lost 23 per cent; and the 
heavy drinkers lost 32 per cent. (Fig. 19.) 


INFANT MORTALITY 

ACCORDING TO 

DRINKING HABITS OF PARENTS 


ABSTAINING PARENTS DRINKING PARENTS IMMODERATE DRINKING 

PARENTS 



Copyright, 1913, by Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston. 
Fig. 19. 


“Abstainers” were persons who had never used alcoholic drinks, or at 
least since marriage. “Drinking” parents used no more alcohol than corres¬ 
ponds to one glass daily of 4 per cent beer. “Immoderate” drinking parents 
drank daily more than the equivalent of one glass of 4 per cent beer. 

When there is this higher death-rate in families of drinkers, it is 
due partly to the fact that the children are less strong physically, and 
partly to the fact that they may not have proper food, clothing, 
warmth, and shelter, since when money is spent for drink there is 
less to spend on these other things which help keep good health. 

' 26 
















What Animal Lives Tell Us .—In studying the death-rate of children 
in human families of drinkers and abstainers it is sometimes difficult 
to be sure that all the differences except the use of alcoholic liquors 
have been excluded. Hence a number of studies have been made with 
animals because they can be kept in two separate groups, one given 
alcohol, the other none, and, treated just alike, the results can be 
carefully compared. Practically all of these have shown a higher 
death-rate in the young of the alcohol animals. 

Dr. Stockard, 32 of Cornell Medical School, for several years has 
been studying guinea-pig families, comparing those in which one or 
both parents had alcohol with those where the parents had none. 

The alcoholized guinea-pigs had in all 32 young, 25 of which 
died. Of the seven living, 5 were stunted. The parents who were 
given no alcohol had 17 young and lost not one. All were strong, 
healthy, and vigorous. 

Stock raisers know how to care for their cows, horses, and sheep 
so that they lose very few young animals. The experimenters have 
shown that even when animals are given particularly good care in all 
other respects but are given alcohol, a large part of their young 
die, confirming the observation that very often human parents who 
use alcoholic drinks lose a larger proportion of young children than 
abstaining parents. 

A German doctor lately said that though we learn to fly, talk 
by wireless, and visit the earth’s poles, we have no reason to boast of 
our knowledge while we fail to prevent the needless loss of so 
many little children. 

Some Lives Spoiled by Drink .—Sometimes children grow up into 
men and women whose bodies are not strong and perfect, or minds as 
keen and bright as they should be. Some have defects of the brain 
and nervous system and become insane. Some never are able to learn 
the difference between right and wrong, or if they know, do not have 
enough self-control to keep from doing wrong, such as stealing, in¬ 
juring others, or destroying property. 

There are many reasons why such a large number of people are 
defective, but the studies of many physicians have led them to be¬ 
lieve that in many cases drinking by parents is responsible for the 
condition of these children. 

Dr. Demme, of Berne, Switzerland, 33 for example, studied care¬ 
fully for fifteen years 10 temperate and 10 intemperate families living 
under as nearly as possible the same circumstances except for the 
use of alcohol by one or both parents in the intemperate families 
(Fig. 20.). Of the 61 children in the temperate families, there were 

27 


50 living, normal children. Of the 57 children in the intemperate 
families, only 10 were living and normal. 

Dr. Laitinen, of Finland, compared 50 abstaining and 59 drinking 
families living under similar conditions. The abstaining parents had 
1.3 per cent of weakly children; the drinking parents 8.2 per cent, 
more than six times as many. 40 


Alcoholism and Degeneracy 

Investigation made by Prof. Demme, Bern, 1878-1889. 

61 Children in 10 Very Temperate Families 

57 Children in 10 Intemperate Families 

HB 5—Died in Infancy 

—25 Died in Infancy 

H 2—St. Vitus Dance 

1 1 — St. Vitus Dance—Idiotic 

B 2—Backward—Not Idiotic 

6—Idiotic 

3 2—Deformed 

5—Deformed 

BB 5—Dwarfed 

EH 5 — Epileptic 

HHHH9HHHSBSH9HB so Normal 

10 Normal 

Defective Children 1 8 #> 

Defective Children 82.5 % 

Normal Children 82 % 

Normal Children 1 7.5 % 

Copyright 1910, by Scientific Temperance Federation 


Fig 20. See page 27. 


Brings Out Latent Defects. — Thus the effect of alcohol on the 
children of the drinker may be even more serious than upon himself, 
because many of these defects once started, tend to perpetuate them¬ 
selves in one form or another from generation to generation. Further, 
alcohol seems to be able not only to start defects by injuring the 
delicate cells in which a human life begins, but where there is for any 
reason a weak, nervous system, alcohol is liable to bring out and 
intensify defects that otherwise would have remained latent. 

This does not mean that all the children of a drinker must be 
or are defective. Nature, if given a chance, is always trying to build 
up a sturdy human race. It does mean that they must take the 
greater pains to keep themselves well and to abstain from alcoholic 
drinks. 

DRINK’S BURDEN ON SOCIETY. 

Out of the effects of alcohol on body and mind grow certain other 
serious consequences to society as a whole. (Fig. 21 .). 

The Road to Poverty .—The pay envelope often suffers as the con¬ 
sequence of the worker’s drink habit upon his efficiency, skill and 
carefulness. Some German societies which pay insurance to em¬ 
ployees when out of work found that 35 on the average when a man 
reached the point where his drink was doing him physical harm that 
could be observed by the physician, he grew more and more 
irregular in employment. y He was out of work more days in a year, 

28 






stayed less often in one place, changed places more frequently, and 
gradually tended to sink from the better paying positions requiring 
skill to the ranks of less skilled labor and with a corresponding 
decrease in wages. The alcoholic habit cuts into the family purse 
both ways. It takes the money spent for the drink itself; it also im¬ 
pairs the actual ability to earn money, and, further, it increases the 
family expense for sickness and accidents. 



Fig. 21. 


Hence, a large proportion of poverty is traceable, directly or 
indirectly to drink. The Committee of Fifty, after making inquiries 
in different parts of the United States, concluded that not less than 
one-fourth of the poverty and 37 per cent of the pauperism were the 
result of intemperance. 18 

A study in Boston of 352 able-bodied men who failed to support 
their families, showed that 65 per cent (243) were drunkards, 36 and that 
intemperance was the chief reason for the non-support. 

Breaks Up the Home .—Drink is responsible for at least half of the 
neglect and destitution of children. Three-quarters of the cases of 
children cared for by the Chicago Juvenile Protective Association 37 in 
1911 grew out of alcoholism in the parent or guardian. 

Intemperance breaks up many homes by divorce. One divorce in 
every five in the United States is caused directly or indirectly by intem¬ 
perance, while in divorces granted to women, intemperance is the cause 
of one in every four. 38 

All these consequences of drink throw a heavy burden of expense 
on the taxpayer and philanthropist in caring for the inefficient, the sick, 
the poor, the neglected, the insane and defectives brought to their con- 

29 




dition through the use of alcohol by themselves or by someone closely 
associated with them. Social drinking customs lead to social waste. 

SOME SPECIAL FACTS. 

Is Beer Liquid Bread ?—There is a common idea that alcoholic drinks 
may be used in place of food by a healthy person, that the malt liquors 
especially are nourishing, that beer is “liquid bread.” 

Even if we admit that there is a little nutriment in beer, to get any 
practical amount of nourishment from it one cannot escape getting a 
harmful amount of alcohol, and in addition there is the ever-present 
danger that the alcohol may lead to the formation of a destructive 
alcoholic habit. 

In the amounts in which alcoholic drinks are generally consumed, 
they produce exactly opposite results from real food: 

Food increases working power; alcoholic drinks decrease it. 

Food aids one in enduring physical strain; alcoholic drinks hasten 
fatigue and decrease endurance. 

Food helps one keep warm; alcoholic drinks make one more liable 
to chill or to freezing if exposed to extreme cold. 

Food helps keep the body in condition to resist disease; alcoholic 
drinks weaken one’s powers of resistance. 

Medical Use of Alcohol Decreasing .—Many persons have used alco¬ 
hol as a medicine, believing it necessary to keep it on hand for this 
purpose. But it should be known that a great change has taken place 
even in the practice of physicians in regafd to such use. All physicians 
use far less than formerly. In the Massachusetts General Hospital, 39 for 
example, the expense per patient for alcoholic liquors fell from $.46 in 
1897 to only $.13 in 1906, a decrease of about 70 per cent. All physi¬ 
cians believe, also, that if liquor is to be used at all medically, it should 
be taken as a drug and only on the prescription of a careful physician 
who understands conditions and gives his directions accordingly, just 
as in the case of any other drug, and especially of a habit-forming drug 
like alcohol. There is also a constantly increasing number of physicians 
who do not use alcohol at all as a medicine, believing that they get 
better and surer results by other means. 

CONCLUSION. 

From every point of view, the effects of alcoholic drinks on mind 
and body mean loss and waste. Their use begins largely in an old social 
custom, upheld by tradition from the days when the results were not 
understood as they should be now after the careful scientific studies of 
the past twenty years. 


30 


Not all persons are equally affected either in kind or amount of 
results, but the evidence goes to show certain definite results of the 
beverage use of alcoholic liquors: 

1. Alcohol tends to reduce physical strength and endurance and 
the amount of work done. 

2. It impairs mental work. 

3. Alcohol belongs to the class of habit-forming drugs, like opium 
and morphine, which tend to create a craving for increasing amounts. 
In certain persons this leads inevitably to heavy drinking and its serious 
consequences. 

4. The alcohol-user, on the average, is especially liable to sickness 
and to premature death. 

5. Drink increases liability to accident even in the person who is 
never intoxicated. 

6. The use of alcohol by parents is' often responsible for a high 
death-rate in children, or for physical and mental defects. 

7. Alcoholism does not necessarily mean drunkenness. The habi¬ 
tual user of alcohol may show some of its effects without ever reaching 
the stage of intoxication. 

8. Alcohol is not a stimulant to the nervous system, but a de¬ 
pressant. 

9. Because of the effects of alcohol on mind and body it is re¬ 
sponsible directly and indirectly in the United States for at least one- 
fourth to one-half of all poverty and neglect, for more than one-third 
of pauperism, for one-fifth of the insanity and divorces, and one-half 
of the crime. 

The facts contained in this pamphlet are no warrant for ,an infer¬ 
ence by any child against the intelligence or good faith of a parent who 
uses alcoholic drinks, for such parent may be acting in accordance with 
public sentiment as to what was right and helpful in his locality at the 
time his habits were formed. But from generation to generation , with 
fuller knowledge, we make improvements in our manner of living as 
zvell as in methods of transportation and business. The new generation, 
acquainted with the facts of modern science on this question, many of 
them discovered since parents or grandparents were young, are in posi¬ 
tion intelligently to avoid those things in which the former generations 
zvere mistaken or which are a special handicap and disadvantage in our 
increasingly complex civilization. 


3 1 


( 

A 


MAY 1 1S1B 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



0 033 261 222 0 


t 


REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES QUOTED. 

1. Saturday Evening Post, April 15, 1912. 

2. Personal letter, August, 1911. - 

3. Personal letter. May, 1910. 

4. Circular, Boston Athletics Association and personal letter (1908). 

5. Die Enthaltsamkeit, July, 1908. 

6. Gruber, Die Alkoholfrage, Vol. VIII. I., 1911. 

7. Schnyder: Alkohol u. Muskelkraft, 1903. 

8. Intern. Monats. z Erforschung des Alkoholismus, July, 1904. 

9. Aschaffenberg: Psychologische Arbeiten, 1896. 

10. Smith, Univ. Heidelberg: Archiv. f. Psych., 1895. 

11. Vogt: Norsk. Mag. f. laeger. No. 6. 1910. 

12. Bayer: Influence of Use of Alcohol on School Children. 1899. 

13. Schiavi: L’Abstinence. Nov. 13, 1909. 

14. Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem. 1903. 

15. Law and Newell: Prevention of Industrial Accidents. 

16. Van Schaak: Safeguards. 

17. Hearing before Sub-Committee of U. S. Senate Committee on D. C., 1912. 

18. Economic Aspects of Liquor Problem. 1899. 

19. Address to Naval Cadets, Murwick, 1910. 

20. Mass. Prison Commission Rept. for 1911. 

21. Fredk. Peterson, N. Y. State Com. on Lunacy in Bulletin of Metropolitan Life 

Insurance Co., 1911. 

22. Dillon Gouge: Rept. Public Actuary, So. Australia, 1890-1892. 

23. Leipzig Sick Benefit Club. Bd. 1. 1910. 

24. Metchnikoff: Nobel Prize Lecture. 1908. 

25. Oliver: Diseases of Occupations. 

26. Phelps: The Mortality of Alcohol. 1911. 

27. Bulletin N. C. State Bd. Health, Dec., 1912. 

28. Mortality Reports U. S. Census Bureau. 1900-1908. 

29. R. McMoore: Rept. Brit. Dept. Com. on Physical Deterioration. 1904. 

30. 146,000 in registration area, about one-half of U. S. U. S. Mortality Report, 1909. 

31. Sullivan: Alcoholism. 

32. Stockard: Archives of Internal Medicine. -Oct., 1912. 

33. Demme: The Influence of Alcohol on the Child. 1891. 

34. Address XII Intern. Cong. vs. Alcoholism. 1909. 

35. Hirt: Based on Statistics Leipzig Sick Benefit Societies. 1910. 

36. Rept. Boston Assoc. Charities. 1910. 

37. Chicago Juvenile Protective Assn. 1911. 

38. U. S. Census Rept. Marriage and Divorce. 1909. 

39. Cabot: Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, April 15, 1909. 

0 


3 2 


